Lagging behind the west

When the Academy of Agricultural Sciences (AdL) was founded, the Institute for Plant Breeding was established in Klein Wanzleben in 1952 and affiliated with the academy. Apart from the institute in Klein Wanzleben, which was renamed the Institute for Beet Research (IfR) in 1967, three research centers and 20 other institutes with more than 12,000 employees were part of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The main tasks of the Institute for Beet Research, which had begun with the same breeding material as KWS in Einbeck after 1945, were sugarbeet breeding, research into processes and methods, and basic research for socialist agriculture. Due to the critical situation in sugarbeet and sugar production in the GDR, the Institute for Beet Research was accorded special attention from the government. Development of new sugar production processes involving little manual work had top political priority in view of the serious shortage of labor in agriculture. Successes were soon achieved, too: In the 1950s Professor Hans Röstel, who was then in charge of breeding at the Institute for Beet Research, managed – at enormous effort – to select eight monogerm seed carriers from half a million plants. They formed the basis for the first monogerm sugarbeet variety to gain approval in Germany, back in 1963. The first hybrid variety was then put on the market in 1978. It was called Ponemo and was developed in cooperation with Poland, which supplied the pollinator. This variety was grown on more than 500,000 hectares in Poland and the GDR in the following years.

Apart from practical breeding activities, there was a growing focus on basis research in Klein Wanzleben. In order to ensure it could respond and operate effectively against the backdrop of the growing importance of biotechnology methods, a new laboratory building was put into operation in 1974. Apart from facilities for cell and tissue culture, research on yield physiology was also expanded in climatic chambers. In particular, these investments enabled progress in in-vitro cloning of inbred lines, a vital aspect in hybrid breeding, and was aimed at producing haploid and doubled-haploid lines. As a result of the steady rise in demand for in-vitro plants, a Biotechnology Center with a 6,000 square meter greenhouse complex was made available for further research as of 1986. Research into phytosanitary measures for pest control, which dealt mainly with combating nematodes, was assigned its own lab. The Institute for Beet Research’s workforce also grew continuously over the years and decades. More than 260 people were employed in breeding and breeding research in Klein Wanzleben by 1989. Despite the – by GDR standards – above-average efforts and expenditure on material and personnel, the Institute for Beet Research was never able to catch up with the world’s best in terms of quality and performance of its sugarbeet breeding and production. The performance of its own varieties in the 1980s was an average of eight to ten percent below that of the best international ones. The biggest problem was the seed’s inadequate germination capacity. Seed could only be produced in the GDR and not in regions with a more favorable climate, such as in France or Italy.

That is why the political and economic decision-makers began, as of the beginning of the 1980s at the latest, to look around for potential cooperation partners – and also did not shy away from obtaining seed by illegal means (see the article on “Operation Crystal” on page 10). Both approaches are documented by extensive files stored in the archive of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service (Stasi) of the former GDR in Magdeburg.

Cooperation between KWS and the IfR from 1982 on

The historical ties between KWS and Klein Wanzleben paid off in that search for suitable business partners. After initial cautious contacts at trade fairs from 1982 on, the first official group of visitors from Einbeck traveled to Klein Wanzleben in July 1985. That meeting marked the start of “unofficial” cooperation between the Institute for Beet Research and KWS, which was then enshrined in written agreements from 1986 onward. The joint activities included not only exchange of seed for performance tests and multiplication, but also breeding work, albeit on a small scale. A report from the Stasi files stated that one goal of the Institute for Beet Research (although it was ultimately not achieved due to the fall of the wall) was to launch a joint hybrid variety by 1991 and share the license for selling it to third countries.

The persons in charge at the operational level now met alternately in West and East Germany. Until the border opened in 1989, however, only three employees from Klein Wanzleben were allowed to go to Einbeck – they belonged to what was known as the “travel cadre” (regime loyalists who were allowed to travel to the west and could be relied on not to defect) and all three had been recruited as unofficial collaborators of the State Security Service. They shared their experiences and the scientific and practical information they gathered from these visits to Einbeck in detailed reports with their Stasi handler.

What did the two partners aim to gain from this cooperation? While KWS was primarily interested in establishing new contacts and tapping seed markets in Eastern Europe through Klein Wanzleben, the breeders in the GDR mainly wanted to obtain scientific, technical and breeding know-how and access to KWS’ high-yielding starting material. The GDR hoped to profit far more from the business relationship than KWS.

In hindsight, neither side gained any particular economic benefit from the cooperation in the 1980s. However, the existing ties with KWS proved to be very advantageous for the further future of the sugar village Klein Wanzleben when the wall fell and afterwards. |